NASA satellite:
Aqua, Latin for water, is a NASA Earth Science satellite mission named for the large amount of information that the mission is collecting about the Earth's water cycle, including evaporation from the oceans, water vapor in the atmosphere, clouds, precipitation, soil moisture, sea ice, land ice, and snow cover on the land and ice. Additional variables also being measured by Aqua include radiative energy fluxes, aerosols, vegetation cover on the land, phytoplankton and dissolved organic matter in the oceans, and air, land, and water temperatures.
Click here for more info. on AQUA & ** here ** for weather-related images like the one below -- a volcanic eruption in Chile.
As part of an ongoing joint project between UAHuntsville, NOAA and NASA, John Christy, a professor of atmospheric science and director of the Earth System Science Center (ESSC) at The University of Alabama in Huntsville, and Dr. Roy Spencer, an ESSC principal scientist, use data gathered by advanced microwave sounding units on NOAA and NASA satellites to get accurate temperature readings for almost all regions of the Earth. This includes remote desert, ocean and rain forest areas where reliable climate data are not otherwise available.
The satellite-based instruments measure the temperature of the atmosphere from the surface up to an altitude of about eight kilometers above sea level. Once the monthly temperature data is collected and processed, it is placed in a "public" computer file for immediate access by atmospheric scientists in the U.S. and abroad.
Global Temperature Report: January 2012
Global climate trend since Nov. 16, 1978: +0.14 C per decade
January temperatures (preliminary)
Global composite temp.: -0.09 C (about 0.16 degrees Fahrenheit) below 30-year average for January.
Northern Hemisphere: -0.06 C (about 0.11 degrees Fahrenheit) below 30-year average for January.
Southern Hemisphere: -0.13 C (about 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) below 30-year average for January.
Tropics: -0.13 C (about 0.23 degrees Fahrenheit) below 30-year average for January.
December temperatures (revised):
Global Composite: +0.13 C above 30-year average
Northern Hemisphere: +0.20 C above 30-year average
Southern Hemisphere: +0.06 C above 30-year average
Tropics: +0.04 C above 30-year average
(All temperature anomalies are based on a 30-year average (1981-2010) for the month reported.)
